Two weeks away: The 8^th annual ICE Cattle bull and bred heifer sale will be held March 9 at our headquarters near Guide Rock, NE.  You can bid in-person, online through DVAuction, or leave sight-unseen bids with Ashley (402-257-7587). We welcome people who are just looking. Come see our cattle and enjoy a free hamburger meal (I hear Grandma Doreen might be making her delicious cinnamon rolls again).

Upcoming Event: I have been preparing for an upcoming regenerative ag presentation with Green Cover Seed (Bladen, NE) in June. I was asked to write an “about us” document to introduce people to our program and protocols. It has been a good exercise to consider what we do and why we do it. I tend to get into auto mode and don’t think about the “why” in the busyness of the “what.”  I suggest you think about what you would include in an “about us” article for yourself/farm/ranch/operation/whatever. If you are doing things because “that’s the way they’ve always been done,” you have room to improve; everybody has room to improve.

Speed/Volume: I once heard a football coach discuss speed in a way I had never considered. He said speed applied in the wrong direction puts you farther away from where you’re supposed to be. Our society is fantastic at modeling bigger is better. If you apply these concepts to a cattle herd, you may want to increase herd size when your cattle are losing money…so you can lose more money? We are currently in an economic season when cattle prices encourage expansion. That means saving back heifers and the need for calving ease bulls. Before you expand, carefully weigh your direction…and speed. Don’t head farther down the wrong road. Aim for a production system that makes money no matter how high, or low, feed prices get.

Our Cows: As part of the “about us” article I described what our cows must do every year: Our cows must calve in May-June on grass unassisted. They go through the summer on native grass and are pulled for an A.I. project in August. They go back to grass after the project, and clean-up bulls are put with them. They stay on grass until corn stalks are ready, typically sometime in October. The calves stay with them, learning how to graze low quality crop residues, all through the winter until they are weaned in March-April. In May the process starts again.

Now, from my understanding of “expert” advice, cows grazing crop residues need supplementation. In my travel across Nebraska cattle country I’ve often seen lick tubs/tanks out in corn stalks. Some feed cake or cubes. Supplementation is expensive…and not necessary, if you have the right kind of cattle. I take the insanity one step further, our calves are still on the cows when grazing stalks. No expert anywhere would say the calves nutritional needs are being met. Depending on how you define “need” I might agree. However, those calves are learning how to get by on very little (a lesson too many Americans don’t know), they are learning how to graze low quality forage by their momma’s side…and they explode once they hit good grass in the spring (compensatory gain). Their nutritional needs are met well enough for a season, then they are really met. This is part of our purposeful development process. Bulls that can’t make it become steers and the heifers that don’t get pregnant are culled, and all those culls fit perfectly into our beef program.

Bulls and Heifers Home:  We have moved the bulls and heifers home to our farming headquarters. If you would like to drive through the cattle, please contact us. We can provide an ATV if you prefer or you can use your vehicle. Our headquarters are located on a quarter of farmland that has been in the Greenhalgh family for over 100 years. This year we planted approximately 50 acres of a sorghum sudan/pearl millet mix on this quarter with the rest planted to corn. We used the cover crop mix to graze before, during and after our A.I. project which is the first week of August. We pulled the cattle from the mix prior to September to get the regrowth we have now to, in addition to the cornstalks, take the cattle to the sale. We will probably put out some hay just prior to the sale when we gather everything in for lot tags and sorting. When you take our animals, home you can be certain they were developed by being forced to develop themselves, via grazing. They were not fed.

Poor Man’s PCC: I’ve had multiple customers admit to me they have purchased PCC bulls in the past but are no longer willing to do so at their current prices. Though I’d prefer higher sale prices I’m content to wait for our reputation to be built…it is happening. We have many repeat customers and we appreciate them greatly. Believing we could produce excellent seedstock got me going; repeat customers are what keeps me going. I could quit now if my only goal was to see if we could produce and develop high-quality seedstock. It is the next generation…and our customers, that keep me going. Thank you, customers, and we welcome all of you who have contacted us recently but who have never purchased.

Develop Your Own: If you have a herd bull you like DO NOT be afraid to keep back a son or two out of your favorite cows. There is a good possibility you can develop your own bulls in the same way your cattle run and they will be just fine, likely better than many you could buy. We have bulls working across America, but if our bulls could all stay within a 300 mile radius, they would stay in a similar climate/production region.  I suspect some people get new bulls in part because they don’t want a bull breeding their offspring. I get that, but the issue isn’t as pronounced in cattle; it’s linebreeding if it works, right?  

Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure (clean, honest…doesn’t mean perfect) in heart, for they shall see God.” So when I can’t see God is He the problem? I don’t believe so.